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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28620603">In that dark blue night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms'>Vampiric_Charms</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Gen, Grief, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Some angst, coping with war</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:09:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,582</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28620603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After meeting with Rex and the Jedi Council, Ahsoka returns to Sundari to find Bo-Katan before Maul is released to her custody.  Their conversation does not go quite the way she expects it to.</p><p>Set during s7e11 of <i>Clone Wars</i>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bo-Katan Kryze &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Bo-Katan Kryze/Ahsoka Tano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In that dark blue night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This takes place during <i>Clone Wars</i> s7e11 <i>Shattered</i>, after the meeting with the Jedi Council and before Ahsoka leaves with Rex and the clones.  I’m just gonna squeeze it in there, mkay thanks.</p><p>I hope all of you are safe and sound!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ahsoka found Bo-Katan again in the makeshift infirmary the clones had set up on the main floor of the abandoned Sundari palace.  It was teeming with injured soldiers and Mandalorians alike, some lying prone on cots but most sitting on empty crates as medics did what they could.</p><p>There was debris everywhere, remnants of the battle they had only just ended, and Ahsoka stepped over it all carefully as she looked around for familiar faces.</p><p>Bo-Katan was sitting on one of the crates by the far wall, her helmet off and her head lowered to stare down between her knees.  There was a used hypospray on the crate beside her, and she held it out unseeingly for a medic to grab as he passed by her on his way to another patient.</p><p>“You okay?” Ahsoka asked as she approached. </p><p>Bo-Katan barely raised her head, turning just enough for Ahsoka to see her eyes around the curtain of red hair.  She looked away again quickly.  “Lost a fight with an elevator earlier,” she grumbled.  “My spine is finally protesting me still being alive, after that.”  </p><p>“Has a medic - ”</p><p>“Yeah,” Bo-Katan interrupted, impatiently waving off Ahsoka’s concern.  “I’ve been seen to.  Thanks, though.”  She glanced at Ahsoka, only briefly, before her eyes darted down to the floor between her boots.  “Did your call with the great Jedi Council meet your expectations?”</p><p>Ahsoka exhaled sharply at Bo-Katan’s sour tone, but she wasn’t exactly wrong to feel that way; Ahsoka felt it, too.  “No,” she said, “though I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed.  They have no reason to include me in their decisions any longer.  I just wish I knew what was going on.”  </p><p>She sighed again and dropped to sit on the ground beside Bo-Katan’s crate, exhaustion starting to creep in.  “I should be relieved all this is over,” Ahsoka said once she got settled.  “But something still feels...unfinished.”</p><p>“I don’t like the sound of that.”  </p><p>Bo-Katan shook her head without adding anything more, and Ahsoka couldn’t help but agree.  She glanced upward, trying to catch sight of Bo-Katan’s face above her.  All she really saw was the sheet of her hair and the underside of her jaw.  There were bruises there, pressed deep into the skin around her neck, and Ahsoka frowned.  Maul had hurt her quite badly.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Ahsoka murmured, and Bo-Katan glanced down at her, confused.  “Your neck looks like it hurts,” she explained poorly, gesturing to the bruises.  “I'm sorry he did that to you.”</p><p>Bo-Katan shrugged and looked away.  “It’s not the first time.”</p><p>There was something about her voice, a guilt and fury there that made Ahsoka frown. “What do you mean?”</p><p>“Has no one told you?” Bo-Katan asked sarcastically.  “That foul creature is only alive because of me.  I’ve faced the consequences of that decision in many ways, including being choked by invisible hands on more than one occasion.”</p><p>Ahsoka’s frown deepened and she gazed up at Bo-Katan, considering this information on top of what she already knew.  Bo-Katan refused to look at her, even though she must have felt Ahsoka’s eyes on her face. </p><p>“I thought,” Ahsoka said carefully, “it was Pre Vizsla who made that choice.”</p><p>“Does it even matter?” Bo-Katan spat.  “I didn’t stop him.”  Before Ahsoka could say anything to contradict this, Bo-Katan scowled viciously.  “When we found them - Maul and his brother - they were already mostly dead.  I wanted to kill them then and there.  I should have.  I didn’t.  So yes, Ahsoka, it’s my fault - and the biggest regret of my life.”</p><p>“I think we have very different concepts of that word, fault,” Ahsoka said, words gentle now  “It seems to me, the only mistake you made was trusting Pre Vizsla’s judgement.”</p><p>This, apparently, was not the correct thing to say.  Bo-Katan turned her head and set Ahsoka with an enraged glare.  “You do not understand,” she said irately.  “You and your Jedi conditioning, right and wrong, good and evil.  I am not a good person,” Bo-Katan told Ahsoka fiercely, eyes blazing.  “This <em> is </em> my fault.  I can try to fix it, but I am still the only one left to blame for Satine’s death and Maul’s rise.”</p><p>Something bizarrely protective flared in Ahsoka’s chest.  She sat up on her knees to get closer to Bo-Katan’s level above her.  “Who told you that?” she asked.  “Who told you that Satine’s murder is your fault because you’re not a good person?”</p><p>Bo-Katan shook her head and didn’t speak.  She didn’t have to.  Ahsoka reached out to touch Bo-Katan’s arm where it was resting on her knee, but she pulled away with a jerk.  Instead Ahsoka dropped her hand to wrap over the edge of the crate, not put off.</p><p>“Everything you have done since Maul’s coup has proven you to be not just a good person, but someone who is compassionate and who loves her people fiercely,” she said, tone low and insistent.  She wanted to try reaching for Bo-Katan’s hand again, though she stopped herself.  “Good and evil - come on, Bo.  You know I don’t believe that, not anymore, and neither do you.  So what if you’ve made mistakes trying to learn who you are?  You’ve changed.  You’ve found your purpose.”</p><p>Bo-Katan scoffed, obviously not convinced and still just as angry, but she didn’t get up to leave.  Ahsoka took that as a small victory.  </p><p>“Pre Vizsla pulled out the worst of you, Bo, but that’s not who you are.  You are strong, and vibrant, and <em> so </em> courageous.  Those are not bad things.  I actually envy you, how strong your mind is when you decide to do something.  You are a force to be reckoned with.”</p><p>This time when she reached out Bo-Katan didn’t pull away, and Ahsoka put her hand very gently, very slowly, on Bo-Katan’s forearm.  That was definitely a victory.  </p><p>Bo-Katan sighed unhappily and gazed down at Ahsoka’s hand.</p><p>“Are you trying to say he manipulated me?” she asked dourly, focusing only on the first part of what Ahsoka had said.  “That I only did those things because he made me do them?”</p><p>“No, that’s not what I mean,” Ahsoka said, not pushing the issue now.  She knew Bo-Katan admired Pre Vizsla, that she looked up to him for a very long time and had been there when Maul murdered him in cold blood.  That was a trauma she had shoved down, but it was still there, still raw.</p><p>“I’m sorry I left you.”</p><p>Ahsoka looked up, pierced by the acute sadness in Bo-Katan’s voice.  Her eyebrows were narrowed, her face sharp, when Ahsoka studied her.  “When?”</p><p>“In the throne room,” Bo-Katan elaborated.  “With Maul.  I left you alone to fight him by yourself.  I should have stayed with you.”</p><p>“Oh,” Ahsoka said, brushing this off with a wave of her hand.  “Turned out fine, didn’t it?  He’s in our custody now.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Bo-Katan said with a self-deprecating chuckle.  “That he is. There’s still time for me to kill him, you know.  Just say the word.”</p><p>Ahsoka didn’t have a chance to respond before Rex called out to her, voice echoing over the large room from where he stood in the elegant entryway.  “Time to go, Commander.  We’ve been given the all-clear.”</p><p>“Thank you, Rex,” Ahsoka said, standing. </p><p>Bo-Katan watched her for a moment, silent as she contemplated her next words. Whatever she was going to say, she seemed to change her mind. “I’ll go retrieve your <em> cargo</em>,” she said instead, getting to her feet as well. </p><p>She swayed almost imperceptibly, and Ahsoka instinctively grabbed her elbow to steady her. Bo-Katan gave her a look, one Ahsoka couldn’t decipher, and she dropped her hand. </p><p>“First,” Ahsoka said, hesitating and then forging ahead anyway.  “Here, let me see the comm on your arm guard.”</p><p>Bo-Katan frowned at her, baffled, but she held out her wrist obligingly.  Ahsoka took it, activating her comm and entering in a code. </p><p>“This is my personal contact frequency,” Ahsoka told her, letting go so Bo-Katan could pull away.  “It’s cast through an unused subspace band, no one else will intercept it.  I hope - ” she hesitated again when Bo-Katan just kept staring at her, expression unreadable but intense as they stood so close.  “I hope we can be friends.”</p><p>“I don’t have friends,” Bo-Katan said unflinchingly, and Ahsoka felt that small bit of hope deflate in her chest.  </p><p>“Well,” she said anyway, “ you have me now.”</p><p>Bo-Katan gave her a tiny, fleeting grin and Ahsoka beamed at her, relieved.  “I suppose I do.  Thank you,” she said, “for the comm frequency.  Would you like to come with me to make sure Maul is secured?”</p><p>That was more than just a simple offer, Ahsoka understood that immediately.  Bo-Katan was offering her friendship in return with this small gesture, even if she hadn’t said so aloud. </p><p>“No, that’s all right,” Ahsoka said.  “I trust you.”</p><p>Bo-Katan gave her a sharp nod and stepped away.  “Very well.  I will meet you shortly on the loading dock with your prisoner.”</p><p>Ahsoka watched her leave the makeshift infirmary, her heart tight with emotion.  They had both survived, Maul was in custody, and Mandalore had been liberated.  Bo-Katan had her home back. </p><p>Why, then, was Ahsoka so reluctant to leave?</p><p>She shook her head, pushing away the nagging thoughts that clouded her mind the harder she tried to pinpoint them.  No matter.  Anakin was waiting for her return, and after that - she would find a new adventure for herself. </p>
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